Goal Setting Ideas for Drummers, by Steve Benedetto

From the moment you first took your drum sticks in your hands and sat for the in front of your drums, ready to hit the drums and cymbals, you surely set the definite goal to be a pro or at least decent. Let us tell you that setting goals isn’t bad at all, but the most important thing is not the arrival, but the process through it. What should I do to make it? What does it take to get there?

It is very important that you know how to have a good criteria about how you organize your goals in the short, medium and long term. Being a professional is something you will not achieve in a couple of days, or months, but don’t get discouraged, you’ll get there. Learning disciplinary habits and having enough motivation will take you where ever you wish to go. Here are some tips on how to set goals to be the drummer you want to be:

1) The first step would be to have patience, bet on this, nothing that’s really worthwhile will be just easy. But the attitude you choose to face things with is what will definitely mark the difference between being successful or stagnating. Having patience and knowing your own rhythm of learning and limitations is vital to be aware of your practice and how to be able to improve it.

2) Organize your time: Organize intelligently your schedules will allow a progressive advance. If your goal is (for example) to accelerate a tempo or master the skill of separating both hands, design study schedules that you can complete, in which you can repeat the appropriate exercises over and over until they’re perfected. One or two hours of practice could be enough, but if you’re feeling hardcore you go up for a three or four hour’s full practice. It is also important to establish priorities, this is where you find the challenge of this issue, remember: your time is valuable.

3) Practice and repeat: the formula that never fails to musicians, this is something that you must always keep in mind, "practice makes perfect" and repetition is the key to achieve precision. Remember that practicing must be constant and with the due dedication.

4) Short, medium and long term goals: an excellent idea to improve would be to establish concrete objectives to improve in any area and reinforce the skills you acquire. Short-term goals may be to meet the schedules you organize during the week (one or two hours a day, for example), a medium-term goal could be to learn a song or exercise during that month and execute it perfectly for your class. It is only a matter of observing where you have strengths and flaws and what’s the work that can be done in the less time and what would take a little longer.

5) The most important thing: enjoy what you do and don’t get stressed ... you don’t want to be like that guy from 'whiplash' (if you haven’t seen this movie yet we highly recommend it); you should feel a true passion for what you do instead of an obsession that can lead you to feelings of frustration or inferiority, always remember to go at your own pace and not despair.

We hope that these small tips have been useful to you, don’t hesitate to contact us to know more about your concerns or doubts about music or the fine art of playing drums. See you in the next post.